Royal Protector

She nodded uncertainly.

“Do you have any idea why someone would ransack your cabin?”

“No.”

“Any idea what they might have been looking for?”

Again, she responded with a flat, “No.”

“Who was Hugh Miller?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, who was he? We know that wasn’t his real name. And the address he gave Mo when he checked in was phony, too. Who was he, Lexie?”

When she didn’t reply immediately, he pressed her. “His prints have been sent to CBI and it’s only a matter of time before they match them with an identity. If you tell me now you’ll be saving everyone a lot of trouble.”

She rose and moved over to the window where she stood with her back to him. “I only knew him as Hugh Miller.”

“Where did he come from?”

“I don’t know. I can’t tell you anything more about the man.”

“Can’t or won’t?” It took some doing, but Lucas managed to keep his voice even. “Look, Lexie…whatever is keeping you from telling me the truth, it can’t be worse than the legal ramifications that could result from your stone-walling.”

She turned around to face him with an openly defiant expression. “There’s no point in threatening me, Sheriff.”

Lucas felt his control slip. An innocent witness afraid to come forward was one thing, but Lexie’s constant evasions were making him question just how innocent she really was. “Damn it! A man is dead. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. The note of desperation in her voice touched off an unwanted rush of protective instincts inside Lucas. She stood silently for several minutes, then sighed and turned to face him once more. “I know you’re trying to help, Lucas. But there’s no need. Every-thing…well, it’s just too late.”

“Too late for what, Lexie?”

She started for the door. “Could you please arrange for someone to drive me back to the ranch?”

Lucas covered the length of his office in three long strides. “What are you hiding, Lexie? Tell me.”

“Let me go.”

“Do you know why he was killed?”

“No!” Although he couldn’t yet begin to explain why, Lucas sensed a world of pain behind that single word.

“You never knew him as anyone but Hugh Miller?”

“That’s right.”

Well, at least that’s something, Lucas thought. “How about his family? Do you know how to contact them?”

“I don’t know anything about his family…or even if he had any.”

“Why was he here, Lexie? What did Hugh Miller have to do with you?”

A look of something close to panic flickered across her face and Lucas could feel her shutting down, again.

“Level with me, Lexie. I can help you, but you have to tell me the truth.”

“I can’t!” When she tried to push past him, he reached for her hand and held her where she stood.

“Let me go! You have no right to detain me.”

Her wrist felt warm and fragile. “I’m just trying to help you.”

She shook her head and pulled away from his grasp. “I know,” she said. “And I appreciate your position. But you don’t understand. Things are not what they appear. It’s out of your hands. Out of mine! There’s nothing anyone can do, now.”

“Tell me what that means, Lexie. Why is it too late? What are you involved in?” Even as he asked the questions, Lucas hoped against all reason that she was as innocent as she claimed to be.

“Please,” she nearly begged him. “Just take me back to the ranch.”

They stood close, so close the faint perfume that was her essence mingled with his every breath, so sweet and distinctly feminine, he could almost taste it.

“I only want the truth,” Lucas said. “And I’m not going to stop until I get it.”

She walked past him to the window and stood once more gazing out at the mountains in the distance.

He moved across the room to stand close behind her, so close it was hard not to touch. “Tell me what has you running so scared. I promise, I’ll do everything in my power to protect you, but you have to trust me.”

He watched her shoulders tense and he felt torn. He didn’t enjoy pressuring her, but he had a duty to bring in a killer.

And if there was a battle raging inside Lexie Dale, Lucas meant to come out the winner.

“Just tell me the truth,” he continued to urge in a low, even voice.

As the moments of taut silence stretched between them, Lucas sensed she wanted to give in. It took every bit of control he possessed, but he allowed her the time she needed to reach her decision. The vow he’d made to her was real. If there was a way to protect her, to help her out of whatever trouble had her scared silent, Lucas would find it. After all, as a cop it was his sworn duty to protect, even if the reaction she sparked inside him was anything but professional.

“Lexie?” he said finally.

She sighed. “There’s nothing anyone can do,” she said without turning around. Her words were tinged with a sadness Lucas could not ignore.

He placed his hands lightly on her shoulders and turned her gently around to face him. With the tip of his finger, he lifted her chin so that he could look directly into her face. The eyes that stared back at him seemed haunted and the expression on her face was one of uncertainty mixed with loneliness. Lucas felt his heart turn over at the sight of such aching vulnerability, and before either of them realized what was happening, he gathered her into the circle of his arms.

She didn’t resist, but seemed, instead, eager to lose herself within the shelter of his embrace. For the space of a few breathless heartbeats the grim circumstances that had caused their paths to cross ceased to exist.

When the phone rang, she pulled back, out of his arms. It rang a second time, before Lucas turned away and reached for it.

“It’s Ritter, with the Burea of Land Management,” Sylvia’s voice announced.

“Tell him I’ll get back to him.”